25 Years

Today is my husband's and my anniversary. We've been married for 25 years. It's hard to believe the time has flown by so quickly. I hope we have at least another 25 years together!!!

Last Day in Paris...

Mother and I went to the Rodin Museum and then went to Les Invalides. They both were absolutely wonderful! The Rodin Museum is in the middle of the city...and the gardens were wonderful. I really wish that the weather was better to see the splendor of the gardens...the buds are just about to burst forth.

Tomorrow we leave to come back to the states. I hate to come back to the states....

Versailles

Today, my brother, his wife and three kids were supposed to go to Versailles with mother and I, but it was so chilly and Parker wasn't feeling well. So...it was just mother, Tanner, Carson and I. We didn't get there until mid-day, so we hit the palace first. I had seen it before, but it is still so beautiful. Mother loved it. We then went to get something for lunch. We were going to go to Marie Antoinette's Domaine, but we would have had to go through the gardens and they were charging since they had the fountain shows today. The only problem was that we missed the first show and Jeff was going to pick us up before the second show...so I didn't want to spend the money to get in the gardens if we weren't going to see the show.

All in all, it was a great day. The boys were really good and I enjoyed spending the time with them.

Tomorrow, I think I'm going to the Rodin Museum. Mother said that she's museumed out!

Update

Yesterday, Mother and I went to the Musee D'Orsay. It was raining and we ended up having to buy our Museum passes prior to getting in. We had to stand in line to purchase them, then we had to stand in the "shorter" museum pass line to get in. It was still quite a long line. I guess it was because of the weather everyone wanted to do something inside. By the time we got into the museum it was lunch time, so we ate at the restaurant in the museum. Mother and I had the lunch special which was baked salmon with a vegetable ragu...which was absolutely wonderful! We even got desert which was a meringue with a caramel sauce...yummy!

We spent the rest of the day going through the museum and still not seeing it all!

Today Mother and I went to the Louvre...saw the Mona Lisa, the Winged Victory and the Venus de Milo along with seeing the Italian artist wing and the Egyptian displays...3 floors!!!!...and then we had a so-so lunch at a cafeteria in the Louvre. Not a good as the Orsay...and just as much money.

We stopped at the shoppes and I got a mug at Starbucks for Dennis...shhhh...don't tell him. Mother and I both got a change purse made in Paris and a Paris Christmas ball made in France then we headed out to the Tuileries garden and then went to the L'Orangerie museum...the Place de la Concorde and then headed back home to my brother's place in Neuilly-sur-Seine.

We are headed off to Versailles tomorrow.

Sorry no pictures. I should have brought my own computer...but it was so nice not to have to lug it here. If I come back, I'll be sure to bring my own!

Checking in...

Well our flight was an hour late leaving Tampa. We had plenty of layover time, so we weren't concerned about missing our flight...but there were at least 50 people that had to get re-routed.

We got into Atlanta without any problems, but we found out that our flight into Paris was going to be leaving an hour late. I thought that they'd make it up in the air, but we were at least an hour late landing in Paris on Friday morning, and it took us almost an hour to get through customs, get our luggage and meet my brother at the pick up area.

Once we got to Jeff's house we got settled, then Mother and I went to the Eiffel Tower. When we got home, we decided to take a little nap and try to catch up on the jet lag. We had a typical French dinner of cheese, tomatoes, and bread with olive oil and basil...and of course wine. Yummy.

Saturday, Carson had his first communion ceremony and the came back, had lunch and started getting ready for Carson's birthday party...blowing up balloons, etc. My brother Jeff and his wife Mary Jane, my mother and I went to Montmartre and had dinner in this quaint little cafe, then went to the Au Lapin Agile for a French musical show. It was a little different. We had to sit on small wooden stools and after an hour and a half, we were ready to go. We walked up the the hill to the square and had a glass of wine, then took a cab back home.

Sunday we got up and blew up more balloons and decorated the courtyard for Carson's 8th birthday. They had 15 little boys at this party, so mother and I went back to Montmartre and toured the Sacre Coeur...back home, had a little champagne and then went out to dinner at Cafe La Jatte for mother's day. It was a wonderful evening.

Today, mother and I went to the Notre Dame and the Pantheon. They were simply breath taking. So much history. I had already been to Notre Dame, but not the Pantheon. The architecture is so amazing! On the way back to the metro, we stopped by a little cafe for a quick piece of pizza. We came back around 4:30 and decided to just relax for a while.

I'll try to upload pictures later if I can figure out how to do it from Mary Jane's computer!

The day is finally here...

Mother and I leave today for Paris!!! My aunt and uncle will be picking me up at 9:30am and then on to pick mother up. I was able to get my boarding pass all the way through to Paris, but I couldn't get mother's because they changed planes on the leg to Paris and the seat that was confirmed doesn't exist. Arghh. I wish I would have known that before yesterday. There was nothing to do about it since it was within 24 hours of the flight. Oh well. The lady from AirFrance said that the flight wasn't sold out...so hopefully she can get an aisle seat.

Our flight to Atlanta leaves from Tampa at 12:20pm...then the flight to Paris doesn't leave until around 6:50pm. We'll have a little bit of a layover, but that's better than a short turnaround time...especially in the Atlanta airport!

Talk to you peeps later!

1 More Day!!!!

Oh my...I'm so excited...and totally stressed out! Mother and I only have one more day until we leave for Paris!!! I decided to take the day off from work tomorrow so that I can get everything packed, get my nails done and have a pedicure and hopefully relax for a little while.

28 Days and counting...

We are down to 28 days to go. April is going to be a very busy month for me, there are so many activities going on in our Beta Sigma Phi council...Advisory Board meeting, Legacy Tea, City-wide Rituals, Founder's Day. The month with fly by before we know it!

Heading back to Paris!!!!

My mother and I will be leaving for Paris in 37 days. We'll be staying with my younger brother and his wife and three boys (under the age of 10) in Neuilly-sur-Seine which is west of Paris. I'm really looking forward to seeing them again...and spring time in Paris!!!!

Hopefully I will be able to see some of the things that I didn't see the last time I was there back in the fall.

I'm a little worried about the flight and all the circulating "sick" air. Coming back from Rome last year I caught a terrible URI and the virus attacked the nerves in my left ear, so now I have permanent severe neuro-sensorial hearing loss. It is very difficult only hearing out of one ear...you can't tell where a sound is coming from and it's hard to hear in a group when everyone is talking at the same time. I sure hope nothing happens to my "good" ear.